Maybe
by touche1
Summary: A chance encounter with a casual acquaintance gets Deeks and Kensi thinking about what might be...


"Jess?! Hey Jessica!"

Deeks glanced back to see an attractive redhead calling out, seemingly in their direction. They had just finished questioning a potential witness in a murder investigation near Venice beach and Kensi was lost in thought as they walked back to her car.

"Jessica!" the redhead called again, a lot closer to them now. This time Kensi turned as well and Deeks saw a flash of pure panic flick through her eyes before her years of training kicked in to help her regain her composure.

"He..ey, Liz" Kensi flashed a bright smile. Deeks immediately recognized it as a strained smile – number 3 of 14 in his mental catalogue of Kensi smiles. This one was her "I want you to think that I'm not thinking of anything else but actually my brain is in overdrive trying to figure out what to do next" smile.

"Jess, it is so good to see you! I was just walking along and I saw this head of sleek shiny dark hair and I said 'OMG, that HAS to be Jessica' and I then I thought I just HAVE to come up and talk, I haven't seen you in like two weeks and then I saw…" Liz turned towards Deeks and cast an appreciative eye over him.

"Uh, yeah… sorry" Kensi looked appealingly into Deeks eyes, a look that he immediately interpreted as a pleading request just play along. "This is Liz. She's in my pilates class in La Jolla that I go for every weekend. " Deeks flashed his most winning smile determined to milk this for all it was worth. Kensi couldn't help but roll her eyes at the way Liz immediately responded by tucking a stray strand of her hair behind her ear.

"And Liz, this is…"

"Dave, right? I recognized him right away!" Liz interrupted before Kensi could finish.

"You recognized me?" Startled for a moment, Deeks looked questioningly at Kensi.

"Oh come on, it wasn't hard. Jess is always talking about you – like literally ALL the time, I feel like I almost know you."

"Re..ally? All the time huh? Not giving away any of our secrets I hope" Deeks couldn't stop a grin from spreading across his face as he slowly and deliberately hooked his arm around Kensi's shoulder, feeling her stiffen instantly. He sensed from her body language that she was very uncomfortable with where this was going.

"Oh she's always telling us how you're so busy with your corporate cases, but you still find time to do pro bono work and how your real passion is surfing, and how you sit and watch girly movies and shows with her even though you hate them, and how you bring back burgers and beer for her when she's had a rough day and how your eyes remind her of the ocean, and how she loves running her fingers through your hair first thing when she wakes up and… "

"Okay! Yes… Liz… what are you… uh… what brings you to LA today?" Kensi hurriedly interrupted. Her cheeks were burning and she didn't have to look at Deeks to know that he would have a gigantic grin plastered on his face. His arm was still around her shoulder and she slipped her hand around his waist, hooking into the belt loop on the side of his jeans.

_Now why did you do that?_ Asked devil Kensi in her left ear

_Just keeping up appearances._ Angel Kensi replied in her right ear

_Yeah right!_ Went her left ear.

"Oh just meeting an old friend and doing some shopping" said Liz, looking from Kensi to Deeks and back, clearly amused by their reactions. "So Dave, next weekend some of the girls are planning to do brunch after our class. Why don't you join us? I'm sure they'd love to meet you. We have been talking about going out for months now, but Jess always makes some excuse."

"I would love to do that Liz," began Deeks but Kensi's nails quickly and painfully dug into his waist and he smoothly changed track, deciding this might not be the right moment to test her "really, I'd love to so much, but I'm in Florida next weekend. Catching some waves with old college buddies. Why don't we take a rain check, some other time for sure?"

"Well, okay. But sooner rather than later, all right? To tell you the truth, Jess was so adamant in not getting you to meet us, that some of the girls were wondering if you even existed. But I can see now why she would be possessive" Jessica smiled, her admiring green eyes looking into Deeks' clear blue ones.

"Yeah, that's my princess" Deeks pulled Kensi towards him and dropped a quick peck on her forehead. "Always wants me all for herself." Kensi couldn't help feel a shiver run through her as his lips touched her, and she instinctively tightened her grip around his waist.

"Right, well, I gotta run. It was really nice meeting you Dave. And Jess, will I be seeing you next weekend?"

"Yeah Liz, I'll be there. Bye."

They waved to the redhead as she walked away, standing in the middle of the road with their arms around each other, the perfect picture of a blissful couple.

"So…" began Deeks as Liz turned around the corner and Kensi closed her eyes cringing in anticipation of a few hours of merciless teasing. They turned and started walking back to her car.

"Deeks. Please!"

"Oh come on! So everytime you were making fun of my hair and calling me Shaggy, you were secretly fantasizing about running your fingers through it?"

"Shut up Deeks. If you ever tell anyone about this…"

"And my eyes remind of you of the ocean? Really?"

"Come on Deeks. Don't do this"

Sensing an unexpected seriousness in the tone of her voice, Deeks fell silent. As they reached the car and got in he could see that Kensi was struggling to decide whether or not to say something. He knew from experience that pushing her at a moment like this would just shut her down, so he kept quiet as she started the car and pulled into the afternoon traffic.

It was a full five minutes before she spoke again.

"Its just that all of them have everything, you know? They're my age, or even younger, and they have husbands, kids, steady lives, something to go home to. It feels good to pretend for a few hours that I do too."

Deeks remained silent for a while, realizing that this was one of their rare truthful moment conversations. They would never refer to it again but the little nuggets of information imparted would be stored away carefully and guarded jealously.

"And this Dave, he just happened to have some of the characteristics of someone you know?" Deeks knew he was treading dangerous ground here, but this had been troubling him ever since he'd heard Liz describe Dave.

"You know being deep undercover doesn't come easily to me Deeks. It was just simpler that way to keep all the lies consistent – taking someone I know a lot about and keeping him in my head."

"In your head. In your bed. Whatever!"Deeks grinned, attempting to dispel some of the seriousness in the air.

"Shut up Deeks!" but Kensi was smiling and Deeks detected the playfulness in her tone.

They rode in silence again for a while before Kensi said in a low voice, "Dave is good for me you know. Sometimes I feel he's just what I need."

Deeks absorbed the statement and pondered the construction of his next words carefully. "So, hypothetically, if you ever decide to, you know, settle down… do you think Dave would perhaps be the kind of person you might like to… settle down… with?" Deeks kept his eyes firmly on the road as he asked the question; they had reached the mission and Kensi was turning into the parking lot.

Bringing the car to a halt in her usual parking space, Kensi turned off the engine and pulled the key out of the slot before turning and looking straight into Deeks'eyes.

"Maybe"

Deeks felt the intensity of those beautiful mismatched eyes sear through him as a hint of a smile tugged at the corner of Kensi's lips. Still holding his gaze, she opened the car door, stepped out and closed the door, looking at him through the window. A couple of backward steps, a quick turn and then she was gone, graceful strides taking her into the building.

As the ornate Spanish door closed behind her, Deeks blinked, the spell of her beauty finally broken.

"Maybe" he whispered softly to himself as he climbed out of the car.

"Good to know."


End file.
